This invention relates to a packaging arrangement for shipping and displaying hand-propelled wheeled vehicles having a tub or hopper, such as carts or wheelbarrows, which are used for transporting a load.
In shipping, warehousing and merchandising hand carts and wheelbarrows it is desirable to package such articles so that economy of space, protection of the article, and the completeness of the package contents are achieved. In the past it has been customary to package wheelbarrows and hand carts by combining the tub or hopper elements into a compact group of nested elements, while separately packaging the auxiliary members such as wheels, handles and support bars. Although this approach achieves economy of space, it produces confusion and waste by promoting the separation of interdependent elements in the shipment, warehousing and merchandising of the hand carts and wheelbarrows. In order to avoid the significant disadvantages generated by the separate packaging of components, some effort has been made to combine the tub and auxiliary elements making up the complete wheelbarrows and hand carts into single packages. But this approach invariably has resulted in bulky oversize packages that are incapable of being nested and require, therefore, an inordinate amount of space in shipment, warehousing and display on the showroom floor. A further disadvantage of this type of packaging is the overall frailty of the packaging created by the significant number of unsupported interior voids.
There is a need, therefore, to provide a packaging arrangement for hand carts and wheelbarrows which will contain all the component elements of the product, make better economic use of space during shipping, storage and display, and at the same time afford maximum protection of the entire product against damage from factory to consumer.